Obama plagiarism scandal redux

posted at 10:50 am on June 4, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

Some will recall the similarities between Barack Obama’s “Just Words” speech and almost identical rhetoric from a previous David Axelrod client, Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. When YouTube videos juxtaposing both speeches started making the rounds, Patrick leaped to Obama’s defense, saying he had counseled Obama and urged him to use Patrick’s arguments — apparently foregoing any attribution. This morning, Obama had better find Mario Cuomo to jump out front of new criticism after stealing from his 1984 speech:

Can Barack Obama develop an original thought in his head? He borrowed “Just Words” from Patrick. He lifted “Yes We Can” from Cesar Chavez, and in some cases didn’t bother to translate it into English. Now he reaches back to the rhetoric of a disastrous cycle for Democrats to copy an old, tired line of attack.

Once again, Barack Obama gets exposed as an empty suit. Maybe if Barack Obama would do more than just visit the Senate but hold hearings on Afghanistan, pay attention to Iran, and really investigate the upcoming entitlement crisis, he’d be a better candidate for President. At least he might be able to generate an original thought or two rather than regurgitating the Democrats’ Greatest Flops.

Its getting old how he keeps bringing up how he voted against the war..blah blah…but when pinned to detail his withdrawal, he is very uneasy. I honestly dont know his latest position. Ive heard him say withdrawal in 6 months..a year..now I heard his advisor say 2 years. 2 Years?? WTF..McCain might have them home before that.

This is more about his speech writers than it is about Obama. He’s an outstanding orator, but Obama has no time to research the details of every speech put in front of him.

cannonball on June 4, 2008 at 10:58 AM

Really? And yet you have undoubtedly attributed all sorts of bizarre responsibility to Presidents in the past, who don’t have direct involvement of 99% of the things that go on in this country. Why the free pass?

America, this is our moment. This is our time, our time to turn the page on the policies of the past…

(APPLAUSE)

… our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face, our time to offer a new direction for this country that we love.

The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge — I face this challenge with profound humility and knowledge of my own limitations, but I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people.

Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that, generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless…

(APPLAUSE)

… this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal…

(APPLAUSE)

… this was the moment when we ended a war, and secured our nation, and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.
(APPLAUSE)

This was the moment, this was the time when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals.

Thank you, Minnesota. God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

For his core supporters, and for much of the media, this is a non issue. Obama could go on stage at the DNC convention in August and deliver an acceptance speech made up of nothing but 30 minutes of armpit noises and those already infatuated with him would swoon. And for the moderates, most of whom are pretty disengaged from politics until just prior to the election, the plagiarism charge isn’t going to make much of a ripple.

If the GOP is going to play “gotcha” with Obama, it’s going to have to be on more substantial things like policy and judgment, than whether or not he’s ripping off Gov. Cuomo’s San Francisco speech.

When your message is, “I’m going to soak the rich, and we’ll split the loot to give you all the things you want. It’ll be great,” how many ways are there to say that? There are only so many ways to dress up that message and make it sound better.

Dunno this is pretty weak. I have seen dozens of politicians use the “maybe if” clause… including McCain and Clinton

12thman on June 4, 2008 at 10:58 AM

Its also the way he makes his speech, he has the same pacing and pauses of Cuomo, soon he’ll be doing Billy Jeff’s speeches word for word while playing the sax.

Please tell me this wasn’t the “Mighty Big Shoe” that Bob Beckel said was going to drop on Obama today.

Outlander on June 4, 2008 at 11:04 AM

Na the other shoe was going to drop when Hillary drops out, Beckel assumed she would drop last night but she hasn’t. What ever they have its better waiting till August or September to bring it out, they played the Wright card way too early, maybe since he was giving up the priesthood.

Really? And yet you have undoubtedly attributed all sorts of bizarre responsibility to Presidents in the past, who don’t have direct involvement of 99% of the things that go on in this country. Why the free pass?

Jaibones, please don’t think of me as giving him a pass. I think electing Obama is the worst thing that could happen to our country. I just think that he is too busy and to inexperienced to know any better and he is putting too much trust in those around him. Maybe he is the one that pulled these quotes. Maybe someone else did. Who cares. I’d rather focus on where he stands versus how he whips a crowd into a frenzy. Obama is a scary man…

I heard various MSNDC talking heads comparing Obama’s speech to Roosevelt, Truman, Lincoln, etc. GIVE ME A BREAK. If that’s fair game we can also comapare his speaking prowess to Hitler and Stalin. They had charisma too.

Obama “can deliver a good speech.” And that’s about all he has going for him. I’d say that he’s eloquent, but that would imply that he creates the arguments that he presents, but he doesn’t, he has people for that, when he speaks off of the top of his head he winds up gaffing.

In this he is the anithesis of Bush. For the last seven years libs have been ignoring everything Bush says and concentrating on how well he speaks in public, calling him a moron because he stammers and mispronounces words. Now they have found themselves a man who has no ideas but “can deliver a good speech.”

Bush does poorly with prepared speeches, but he does well “off the cuff.” Obama does a wonderful job of reading someone else’s words but sounds like an idiot when speaking extemporaneously.

Obama offers pure emotion, pure style, pure rhetoric and sloganeering, and he’s pretty ta boot. The left have found their dream date.

Obama is a great orator, as long as he has somebody to write it down for him. Have you ever, uh, heard, uh, him, uh, speak “off the cuff?” He is terrible at it, in case you didn’t infer that from the “uhs.”

Obama is a great orator, as long as he has somebody to write it down for him. Have you ever, uh, heard, uh, him, uh, speak “off the cuff?” He is terrible at it, in case you didn’t infer that from the “uhs.”

TimothyJ on June 4, 2008 at 11:38 AM

People have been conditioned to respect and revere news anchormen who are, in large part, just people who are good at reading a teleprompter. Obama would make a great news reader.

The Democrats impress me as being more emotion-based in their thinking and their campaigning. It is more about how a candidate makes them “feel” and less about how effective the candidate would be as an executive and what experience/track record that candidate has.

Basically the Democrats respond like children and can be led like children.

His speech is affected and unnatural. He’s trying to sound like a preacher, or what he thinks a preacher sounds like. The “uhs” are designed to show thoughtfulness, as if he’s thinking so deeply that he has to pause to collect the brilliant thoughts that are zooming through his brain.

In fact, given some of the things that have escaped his mouth (about Americans eating too much, about PA’s clingy crackers etc.) he is obviously neither bright nor self-controled. Combined with his narcisisitic messiah complex all of this makes him a dangerously ignorant and amoral man.

Obama didn’t sound very eloquent in the Philly debate when questioned about Reverend Wright and William Ayers. You know, like, uh, distraction from the, uh, issues.

McCain will have to INSIST on at least one debate on Fox News, moderated by Brit Hume. Maybe even George Stephanopoulos could tear apart Obama since his gal lost the primary. And we don’t know what other skeletons might tumble out of the Rezko/Auchi/Ayers/Blagojevich closet between now and election day.

Everybody thought John Edwards was a great orator until he had his clock cleaned by Dick Cheney in 2004.

What good is economic success if the population of cities is highly radiated, burned and turned into craters because the CIC was an appeaser of terrorist supporting nations who are seeking nuclear weapons?

Ed, this is some seriously weak tea. Obama didn’t lift the exact words, and the theme is a natural comeback to McCain’s attack (what else could Obama argue?). Claiming this is a gaffe or somehow illegitimate just makes you (and the HotAir community) look ridiculous. There’s plenty to object to about Obama without stooping to this level of nitpicking.

This is more about his speech writers than it is about Obama. He’s an outstanding orator, but Obama has no time to research the details of every speech put in front of him.falls apart any time he has to answer questions on the fly.

cannonball on June 4, 2008 at 10:58 AM

He is an empty suit.
The speeches he gives are written by others.
It’s probably the same Democratic Socialist who wrote the line both times…both the original and the Obama redux. Since it is likely the same ghost writer both times, it is likely not true plagiarism…it’s just the same material fed through two different puppets.